Rerouting the 20th Century Limited

Henry -

I have learned the hard way to "Never say Never," but the New York Central would have been extremely hard up to detour No. 26 via the Lehigh Valley if the LV main line was out of service and the only route to the east was via the State Line and Sullivan Branch. I suspect that local lore might have grown up around seeing the Maple Leaf or the Black Diamong going that way to avoid a derailment or flood on the LV main. Someone, seeing a semi-streamlined steam locomotive, might have thought that it must be the "Twentieth Century Limited," and the story stuck.

The NYC lines across New York State were not nearly as susceptible to flood damage as the roads in Pennsylvania, and the Erie. Most detours were due to derailments on the NYC Main Line. At that time the NYC had at least one good alternate detour route available to bypass any point between Chicago and Mott Haven, taking into account the availability of the Nickel Plate between Buffalo and Cleveland.

<<Another detour the 20th Century was supposed to have taken was back in the 20's or late 30's due to either a hurricain or someother kind of high water storm. It was via the LV from, I think Rochester or Buffalo to Towanda, PA, then via the Sullivan and State Line/Harvey's Lake branch to Wilkes Barre. I remember reading, and questioning it, in old RAILROAD Magazines. I posed that question around Dushore, PA and was given the answer, "So someone said", but no one has evere offered me proof! Is it a myth????

I agree...it does seem far fetched for the reasons you stated. As I said, I saw it in RAILROAD Magazine. Twice in fact...once in an old issue from the 30s then later again in the 70's (Freeman Hubbard did a lot of that, going back to old issues and stories partly to protect the copyright and partly because he had nothing new to use.) And one sor of railroad historian from Dushore itself said he had heard the story,too, but could find no corroberating evidence. Perhaps it was the sight of the John Wilkes being ferried to Sayre for shopwork that inspired the story...that's the best I can come up with.

It would not have been possible to detour a NYC Hudson or even a LVRR Pacific passenger engine the full length of the SL&S Branch account tonnage restrictions on the wood trestle in Dushore.

Didn't the NYC use the PRR as a Detour out of Chicago once to like Toledo or somewhere once?

On the subject of Detours - If the Century was detoured over the Harlem, why was GM's TRAIN OF THE FUTURE, which sported the FIRST DOMES, brought down the Putnam, rather than over the Harlem? Clearances?

Dieter.

On the subject of Detours - If the Century was detoured over the Harlem, why was GM's TRAIN OF THE FUTURE, which sported the FIRST DOMES, brought down the Putnam, rather than over the Harlem? Clearances?

Clearance for the domes on the Train of Tomorrow was one compelling reason. IIRC, it came down the Put on a weekend and made several public appearances along the way, including Ardsley. Those stations were good for that purpose, with less railroad traffic. I know that it came east over the NYO&W through Middletown, and I think I heard that it crossed the Poughkeepsie Bridge and ran via the New Haven to Brewster, then down the Put and eventually to the West Side via BN and DV - a route with better overhead clearances. If anyone has different or more detailed information on the route, please tell us.

The Century equipment (and all NYC passenger equipment) had the proper dimensions to run into GCT via either the Hudson or Harlem Divisions.

I have a lot of engine house records from the New Haven facilities in
Waterbury. Seems to me I saw something mentioned in one of the books
not too long ago about the GM Train of Tomorrow. If somebody has the
date or dates of these moves, I will look through the old Waterbury
records to see if I can shed some light on this subject.
Noel Weaver

Thanks for the info! Can you imagine crossing the New Haven bridge at Poughkeepsie in a dome seat??

I always thought it strange that the Central did not pull out the stops to have domes, even if they had to splice them into their trains at Harmon, Poughkeepsie or Albany. In my book, that's a botched PR opportunity. I think they would have been the only carrier this side of the B&O with a dome, had they taken any initiative. I don't think the Pennsylvania had them.

Dieter.